NEW YORK — A 16-year-old New Jersey boy described as a thrill-seeker bypassed an inattentive security guard in the middle of the night and climbed a ladder to the spire of 1 World Trade Center, where he apparently took pictures, authorities said Thursday.
Justin Casquejo was arrested at 6 a.m. Sunday at the nation’s tallest building and was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass, police said. Nobody answered the door Thursday at his Weehawken, N.J., home.
According to a criminal complaint, Casquejo was quoted as telling police: “I walked around the construction site and figured out how to access the Freedom Tower rooftop. I found a way up through the scaffolding, climbed onto the 6th floor, and took the elevator up to the 88th floor. I then took the staircase up to 104th (floor). I went to the rooftop and climbed the ladder all the way to the antenna.”
He was arrested on the premises, and his camera and cellphone were seized after authorities obtained a search warrant, said Joe Pentangelo, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police department. The Port Authority owns the trade center site.